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LAST UPDATE | 22 Oct 2024
TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has confirmed that the General Election will be held on a Friday before Christmas.
The three coalition leaders agreed last night that a general election will be held this year.
But no date was agreed upon after the two-hour long meeting.
A government spokesperson said that the three leaders have agreed to a general election in 2024 but that the passage of the Finance Bill is the priority for the Government.
Yesterday, Harris told the media that “I’m not going into the speculation of the day of the election… I have to keep some small element of surprise for you”.
However, this morning Harris said that the election will take place on a Friday and described the possible dates as a “pretty narrow window”.
While the 2020 General Election was held on a Saturday, Harris this morning told reporters: “I like elections on a Friday.”
He added: “Friday is a good day to have an election and so therefore there’s not that many Fridays left to choose from.”
It is understood a three-week campaign could mean an election on 29 November or a four-week campaign with a polling day on 6 December.
Polling day on 22 November is understood to be too tight a timeframe for legislation to pass and an election campaign to get underway.
Harris also said: “I don’t want to keep talking about this [upcoming general election] in many ways, because I think the public don’t want us to keep talking about it.”
He added: “There’s absolute clarity here, there’s going to be a general election, it’s going to take place this year and the general election is going to take place on a Friday, and the general election is not going to take place until the Finance Bill is passed.
“That’s a pretty narrow window.
“I do have to have some respect for my own constitutional prerogative in terms of not providing an absolute running commentary on every element.”
Harris said it was now time for “people to put their shoulders at the wheel in this place to get the Finance Bill passed”.
“As I’ve said consistently over the last few days, I wouldn’t fancy knocking on someone’s doors saying, ‘sorry, we had an election, but we forgot to pass the Finance Bill, and therefore the USC cuts aren’t going to kick in in January, or the income tax changes, or the inheritance tax changes, or some of the supports for businesses’.”
Harris said that “when that work is done, I will decide the appropriate date to have the election”.
The Taoiseach also remarked that he has a “very good idea when the general election is going to be, but obviously the Finance Bill does need to be passed”.
“The Finance Bill deserves proper scrutiny and work, and that needs to happen as well,” said Harris.
“So let’s get the Finance Bill sorted, let’s get on with a really busy Cabinet agenda today, and then very shortly, we’ll have a general election, highly likely to be on Friday.”
Meanwhile, Harris said he was not concerned about the number of Fine Gael TDs who will not contest the general election.
Fine Gael deputy leader and social protection minister Heather Humphreys last week announced that she will not be standing for re-election.
It means 18 of the 35 Fine Gael TDs elected in 2020 will not be contesting the next general election.
“People are entitled to retire after the intensity of politics and politics is much more intense than it was,” said Harris.
He also remarked that “while many of our candidates will be new to the Dáil should they be elected, they’re not new to their communities”.
“In every election, lots of new people are elected and I don’t buy into that argument that incumbency is a bigger factor in the general election as it absolutely is in a local election,” said Harris.
Earlier today, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy took issue with the Taoiseach’s continued commentary on the election date.
“I believe that the three party leaders know when the election is going to be now, and I don’t understand why they can’t tell the public. I think it’s clearly, to try to, in some way, limit the amount of time for campaigning, but that’s not appropriate,” Murphy said.
Murphy said that in reality, the election campaigning has already started.
“They’re running more than a six week campaign in reality. And for all of Micheál Martin’s talk about governing rather than campaigning, he’s been running an eight, nine week campaign. So just tell the public the date. I presume it’s going to be, November 29 and let everybody plan accordingly,” the Dublin South West TD said.
With reporting from Jane Matthews.
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I wouldn’t exactly be excited to be endorsed by Taylor Swift. Pass the bucket..
@Andrew Kenny: I’d be on the same page as you but there’s a 300 million younger vote in the US so her word will definitely impact on Trumps campaign so it definitely carries weight.
@Tony Skillington: 300million ?
@Tony Skillington: 300 million? Did everyone get Botox?
@Andrew Kenny: I would if I welcomed support from her huge fan base.
@Tony Skillington: average age of her concert goers is 40+. Taylor has outlined her reasons and research behind the decision to endorse Harris, not that any of you would care to read them.
@Tony Skillington: In 2020 there was 168.31 million people registered to vote in the US. Sure the total population is around 345 million…… Did you get mixed up with the amount of worldwide followers she has or something?…..
The general jist of what you’re saying is right
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: No. It’s completely wrong.
@Brendan O’Brien: Are you a numpty Trump supporter? In which case everything that anyone says against him is wrong, not just anyone on here!
@Brendan O’Brien: Good man Brendan. Get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?!?!
@Andrew Kenny: It’s great to see even as a non-Swiftie! Not my bag but hugely influential. The Trump’s of the world have had the run of the place for too long. Male, stale and beyond the pale, in his case. Stick together sisters and bring the old guard down! I don’t agree with everything Harris stands for but she’s not so much an upgrade as hi-tech cutting-edge futurism beside the cat-crazed mob.
See comments closed on fine gael always open for the shinners how come
@John Kenny: the Churno is a mouth piece for FFG, no mystery really
@John Kenny: Because I said so.
@John Kenny: they closed the article where FG want to bring in public-funded childcare!!! Socialist childcare!!! From a party that’s supposed to be for privatisation/capitalism!!!
@Brendan O’Brien: no just your mammy
@John Kenny: why type words can make no sense question mark.
Means little. Americans with a brain like Elon Musk are voting for Trump in November.
@cup of tea: the only winner of last nights debate was Vovager 1, the furthest thing from Earth.
@cup of tea: You mean most Americans with half a brain will vote for Trump. Elon Musk may be intelligent but he has no compassion or empathy, which may be part of his autism. Just watch the way he fired people at Twitter – there are even videos of him doing it. If he is the type of leader which encompasses Trump thinking then Attila the Hun would be considered a nice chap.
@Con Cussed: musk has Asperger’s not autism. And they way he fired those twitter employees was proven right. Twitter still ran without a hitch.
@Shane Kinsella (Kinsey): Aspergers was classed as a type of autism.
Twitter has lost half its value since Muskys takeover.
And Twitter even DDoSed itself.
@cup of tea: What’s wrong with his brain
I knew she was trouble when she walked in
Not supporter of trump or Harris but if a person young or old need to follow some pop star to help them to decide who to vote for well that is a sad state of affairs for that person who can’t think for themselves.
@Ned: If you actually read her statement she did not tell people to vote for Harris. She told people to look at what both candidates and decide for themselves who to vote for. What she recommended her followers was for them to make sure they register to vote.
@Patrick Hamill: her intent was to drag her fans who can’t think for themselves to vote for Harris that is so obvious even you should see that
Genuine question: if a man gets a woman pregnant should the man have a say in what happens to the foetus, unborn child, sprog, spawn, or whatever people want to label the result.
@AnthonyK: No: it’s the woman’s body, she she ultimately decides.
@AnthonyK: ‘so she’, I meant.
@AnthonyK: “or whatever people want to label the result’.” Wow.
@Brendan O’Brien: Stay on topic.
@AnthonyK: Yep, as soon as men get pregnant…
@AnthonyK: no
@AnthonyK: Genuine answer: Ideally the man should be allowed state his case. But be shouldn’t ever be allowed to dictate what a woman does with her body.
@AnthonyK: No, it’s the womans body.
@AnthonyK: what if the man feels like he’s a woman now surely that’ll give him rights he can argue he has very same rights as a woman then with equality crap.
She was criticised because she’s friends with someone who “liked” a Trump comment on social media. So there are sad people who actually check on what comments people like. The inquisition has returned.
Meanwhile being endorsed by a singer is a major thing! Granted Harris is a better choice than Trump (so is my cat). But the dumbing down of politics is rather worrying.
@Frank: It was probably forced into peoples “news” feed by the algorithms used on these social media platforms.
Haven’t seen any posts from buster this morning
@Michael o Dwyer: that’s probably him pretending to be Brendan O Brien
@Michael o Dwyer: Trolls gonna troll. He’ll be the first to whine like his Daddy when trolling closes down more comment sections.
@Jack Hayes: You’re the only one whining here, lady.
@Michael o Dwyer: probably gone to bed to cover his head. Can’t believe what happened last night.
@Mike: So you don’t understand the meaning of ‘whining’ then?
@Jack Hayes: Keep on moaning, girl. It’s entertaining.
@Mike: Add moaning to the list of things you don’t understand. Calling me ‘girl’ is great. You’re another low IQ, low info Dim Bulb and you’re not afraid to hide it.
@Jack Hayes: Fix me a sammich, lady! And hurry t fk up.
I wish trump would clear up one thing? Are the Dems talentless, incompetent bunglers or are they complex, genius, masterminds?
I bet the Trump supporters onhere believe they are both.
@Louis Jacob: You just reminded me of this paragraph from an article I read recently about Trump supporters – Boebert took the opportunity to boast on Trump’s behalf about one of his favorite topics: his supreme intelligence—as evidenced by the fact that, as Trump loves to mention, he allegedly once “aced” some cognitive test.
But here’s what Boebert actually said: “President Trump, when he was in office, underwent testing for his cognitive dissonance.”
You couldn’t make up those types of slips…….
@Tricia G28: Lol. I have to say I’m addicted to Boebert videos. She’s straight out of Monty Python.
@Louis Jacob: Sounds like she’s a lot smarter than yourself!
@Con Cussed: Good one.
Taylor Swift, well, maybe. Let’s hope she doesn’t get endorsed by Bouncey, Pinky, Dolly and the other pretentious “feminists”. That would sink her with a lot of voters!
@Padraig O’Brien: Ok. You’re one of those types of people ….
It never stops amazing how so called alfa males worship every hateful lie the crying orange thing spouts out ,
have your say